Saturday, September 01, 2007

Upset of the Decade! Appy St d. Michigan!

I'm immediately declaring it the upset of the decade: Appalachian State over Michigan in Ann Arbor! Oh my god!!!

Yes, Appy State is the two-time defending 1-AA (or whatever it's called) champs, but still -- it's 1-AA. This Michigan team was ranked No. 5 and expected to contend for the national title.

I wouldn't even keep Michigan in my Top 25 after this. (Wait: Can I put a 1-AA team on my Top 25 ballot? Why not? A win at the No. 5-ranked team is a win at the No. 5-ranked team. For this week, at least, Appy State deserves the placement in the Big Boys' Top 25.)

Meanwhile, Michigan's season is over. Finished. Done. Kaput. At least in terms of being considered a national contender. O-V-E-R.

(Seriously: Any other self-respecting program would consider firing their coach -- I don't care how long-tenured he is -- after an all-time epic humiliation like this. If Michigan fired Carr tomorrow, I wouldn't blame them.)

But while it's easy to make this about Michigan's season-obliterating humiliation, this should be about Appy State, about the pride of 1-AA and about college football's greatest upset of the 21st century. (Too bad no one could see it!)

College football: Welcome back! So let me be the first to say it: "Appy New Year!"

-- D.S.

UPDATE: Wait...greatest upset EVER? I just went out for a head-clearing walk, and the more I thought about it, the more I think I'm on board with the idea that this is the biggest regular-season upset in modern college football history.

Not only was it the first time a 1-AA team had beaten a ranked team, but they beat a Top 5 team... a national-title contender... on the road. That's big on too many levels.

(My previous gold standard for Biggest Upset in Modern CFB History was Northwestern over Notre Dame in 1995 -- the prototype "loser" program over the prototype "winner." But at least that was in the same division of college football. This was two entirely separate leagues.)

P.S.: How amazing is it that a contender for greatest upset in CFB history was seen by... virtually no one. Maybe if you had the Big Ten Network on your cable system (who does?) Maybe if you had DirecTV (hardly a majority). Unfortunately for Michigan fans, this is no "tree-falls-no-one-hears" Zen koan. Quite the opposite. It was the Shot NOT Seen Around the World, but Understood Loud and Clear.

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?! Holy God! I'm watching the Yankees and I see on a GLOG entry "For anyone who hasn't heard, Appalachian State just upset Michigan in the first weekend of College Football, one of the biggest upsets in NCAA history. Appalachian State is a Division 1-AA school...". I figure it's a joke from some dumb GLOG'er. Check on ESPN.com and sure enough, it happened. Turn on ESPN and they show an in-game highlight and the announcers of this game(BC/Wake Forest) are just outright shocked. What an embarrassment for a #5 team ... how do you lose at home in the first game of the season to someone in D1-AA! I'd love to know someone who dropped $10 on Appy State to win this game ... I'd lvoe to know how much they got. This is past incredible.

Does anybody else think that the only place this football season can go is down now?

I can't see a game topping this one the rest of the season so we got the game of the year on the first Saturday of the season

by the way now i'm pretty sure that Penn State can win the Big Ten after seeing how Michigan played in this game. All they got to do is take care of business at home and the rest should take care of itself even if they lose in Ann Arbor again

Jason did you really say "in defense of Michigan"? Are you kidding me? You are going to defend this Senior laden team, ranked #5 in the country, playing AT HOME, against a non-division 1A opponent? No. Sorry. I don't care how many titles in a row the Mountaineers have. Michigan absolutely choked. Lloyd Carr=genius.

caught up in the euphoria of this upset was an all-time boneheaded move by app. state head coach to kick a field goal on 1st and goal from the 5 yard line with :30 to go and no time outs. how about running it to the middle of the field and spiking it on the next play? sure enough, michigan had enough time to set up for a chip shot field goal...of course, but for the block. but that decision was just stupid. not trying to be a downer, loved the upset. i just hate to see stupid coaching like that. and michigan is done for 2007, even if they run the table. ha!

-I'm a die-hard Michigan fan.-That was the biggest upset in college football history.-That was the worst loss in the 128 year history of Michigan football.

I know you all want someone to mock and rub their face in the dirt, so I'm here. I have absolutely no comeback. We sucked.

The only good thing to come out of this is that Carr is absolutely, unquestionably, without a doubt out of here. He has been holding this team back for a decade, and it's been every Michigan fan's dirty little secret that we know he's terrible. Our 1997 championship was won in spite of, no because of, Lloyd Carr. Now we don't have to defend him any more. We don't have to pretend we can compete with him.

I feel terrible for guys like Mike Hart (23 carries, 188 yrds, 3 TD) and Jake Long, who each passed up MILLIONS of dollars to come back for their senior year to try and win a championship. They deserve better than this. I hope they can stay healthy and continue the proud Michigan tradition in the NFL.

I don't even know what to say. I hope they get rid of Lloyd sooner rather than later. Maybe we can beat ND, Wisc, and Ohio St and salvage this season. Time for a change.

Respect to App State. They completely destroyed us. They're better than half the teams in the Big Ten.

This is both shocking and isn't -- Appalachian State, as some people have said, is a dynasty, and is probably a better team than say, Northwestern, Maryland, quite a few BCS-conference teams. And against a defense returning only two starters, it's not a shock that Appalachian State was able to put up the points that they did. But, come on, how did Michigan NOT put up at least 56? I thought Appalachian State would keep it a close game in the first half, but once Michigan got into a rhythm, forget it. I realize Lloyd Carr with expectations = failure, but to this level, wow.

so does this help or hurt the BTN? it had quite possibly the biggest upsets in college football history exclusively on its channel and it had one of its big name schools embarrassed weakening the overall opinion of the conference.

lloyd carr should be fired for this (and if not now, surely after the next big loss in the big televen)

I was at the Sports Bar with my Michigan State local alumni club, watching the Spartans lay the wood to UAB. Once that game got out of hand, we took the unprecedented step of switching one of the big screens over to the Mich-ASU game.

Absolutely epic!!! There are several alumni clubs that meet at this bar (MSU, Illinois, Florida, etc) and everyone was cheering harder for App State than they were for their own teams.

This is why I-AA /FCS RULES~ Play the game on the field, don't rely on picking a champ by "voting". Let the results on the field decide things. You just never know, who's to say Boise State couldn't have beaten whoEVER they played in the final game last year?

"I'd imagine plenty of people would rather go to a top 1 AA than some of the division 1 teams in lesser conferences."

Unfortunately, this is simply not true. Each 1-AA team has maybe 10 guys who are D-1 guys (for the sake of App State, we'll up this to 15). Michigan has 75 D-1 guys. This is the biggest upset in D1 history.

To ybobk: "God is really a Buckeyes fan"??? Excuse me, but where was the Almighty during the championship games in Glendale and Atlanta this past year?? Answer: On the Gators sideline! :-)Congratulations to Appalachian State--can only imagine the celebrating in Boone, NC tonight!

I wouldn't even keep Michigan in my Top 25 after this. (Wait: Can I put a 1-AA team on my Top 25 ballot? Why not? A win at the No. 5-ranked team is a win at the No. 5-ranked team. For this week, at least, Appy State deserves the placement in the Big Boys' Top 25.)

Well, a win at the #5-ranked team isn't a win at the #5-ranked team when they aren't the #5-ranked team. If you drop Michigan out of the top 25, you're saying they're not one of the 25 best football teams in the country, so you can't say App St. beat the fifth-best team in the country.

To the guy who said... "what if you dropped $10 on app."... Well, I bet on sportsbook.com, and I can tell you that there wasn't even a line on this game (forget a moneyline)... that alone justifies this upset in the annals of CFB history.

Wow, I have to agree Dan. I can't think of another upset of that magnitude. What was the spread on the game? It had to be 30-40 points.

I have to find a team to root for now. One day, I may be able to cheer for Syracuse again but oh has the team fallen from grace. With a new year and 3rd year of the new coach, I was hoping. We always hope.

I say this has to be good for the Big Ten Network. Instead of having a ton of blow outs which more people would rather skip they got an upset for the ages. It has to cause more people to at least want the channel

Kicking the FG on 1st down with half a minute left was the right call. ASU had no time outs left. If you run up the middle, get stopped, then you only get one chance at the FG. With what they did, they would have had a second chance should there be a bad snap. They knew they were giving UM a chance, but had to make sure they got their 3, no matter what. Good thing their special teams brought their A game today. Props to App State.

Let me echo what JayZee said. For the record, I was at the game and I am a diehard Michigan fan. Appalachian State deserved the win. Honestly they should have won by more. They dropped a wide open pass in the end zone, had a FG bounce off the upright, and got jobbed on an instant replay call giving the ball to Michigan.

That was easily the worst football loss in Michigan history and I cannot think of a bigger upset in college football history.

Hats off to App St. Nothing but respect from this Michigan plan. They ruthlessly exploited our marshmallow secondary and bottled up our receivers for most of the game.

Dark day for Big Blue... funny thing is, before the game I was telling my buddy - also a big UM fan - that if Michigan didn't at least go undefrated this season, Carr should be fired. Guess that is pretty much settled now.

Boone is CRAZY tonight. I'm an App State senior and I was able to see the game at one of the local bars. Every bar showing the game was slammed and the whole town saw it. The whole experience is hard to take in. I'm used to seeing our Mountaineers win and then turn on the TV to see what D-IA teams are playing. I'm not used to seeing our team beat a D-IA team never less Michigan. I'm still taking deep breaths.

Dan, I'm pretty sure you can't argue both that Michigan is not a ranked team and that Michigan is a top 5 team. Which is what you're doing when you say reward Appy St for beating a top 5 team but drop Michigan out of the top 25.

(As for me, I think any voter who leaves Michigan in his top 25 tomorrow should automatically lose his vote. That would be the most blatant laundry-voting possible. If you vote on results, Michigan's out of the top 25 for... a while.)

You know, I'm gonna hear it from the NFL fans and whatnot but excuse me while I brag for a minute....Today show's all you pro fans why college football is THE BEST out of the 2. You have the emotion in the Va. Tech game, the uncertainty (and personally I'm glad) of ND football, the impressive USC squad, the great games of KState-Auburn, and last but not least, THE GREATEST UPSET in my lifetime in CFB...Anyone else who says the Super Bowl trumps all this, can the NFL sustain the level of excitement that CFB can??? HELL NO

I"ve seen App. St. play 3 times last season. They are a well-oiled machine and returned most of their top talent from last year's team. Hell, their QB was a frosh last year when he led the team to the back to back.

Michigan lost because Mike Hart was out of the game for a significant amount of time. This is a microcosm of Michigan the last 3 seasons prior to this one.Hart in the game? Michigan damn near unbeatable. Hart out of the game? Henne can't do it.

It doesn't matter if Mike Hart is out of that game for a second or the whole game...there is NO way a school like Michigan should lose at HOME to Appy State. Appy is a great team and would have held their own, but Michigan should have won by at least 2 TDs.

I was glad I had Sirius so I was able to listen to the game,which had the upside of hearing the shocked Michigan radio team dealing with the shock of the situation. At least the Big Ten Network allows ESPN to show highlights before the finish. If they had an NBC/Notre Dame style policy, I would've been super-pissed.

A friend of mine in Mississippi happened to be at a house with Dish Network (and thus the Big Ten network) but the TV remote was malfunctioning and he was terrified to turn away, lest he not be able to get back to the game.

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